


Elephant's Memory

by dralexreid



Series: Dr Piper Bishop [15]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Bullying, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27080266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dralexreid/pseuds/dralexreid
Summary: A case regarding a bullied teenager rubs salt in old wounds and Piper realises the repercussions of her sabbatical.
Relationships: Dr Spencer Reid/Dr Piper Bishop
Series: Dr Piper Bishop [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972852
Kudos: 27





	Elephant's Memory

Piper sat on a metal chair in front of her therapy group. It was the second time she’d asked to speak. It helped a little knowing she wasn’t alone. “Hey, I’m Piper. I’ve been coming here for about 2 weeks now. About a month ago now, I was shot by a man who has since passed away. My shoulder,” she patted it gently. “It’s fine but uhh… I still feel…vulnerable. And I’ve been trying to feel stronger. I’ve been reading umm…Brenée Brown. If you don’t know her, she’s a sociologist. She says that vulnerability isn’t winning or losing. It’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. It’s my favourite line, even if it has nothing to do with bullets.” She scoffed. “I can’t control how or when or if I recover. But I will keep trying. Which reminds me of another quote, by uh…by a poet. S.C. Lourie. She says, some days I am a goddess, some days I am a wild child and some days I am a fragile mess. Most days I am a bit of all three. But every day, I am here, trying. It’s not very sophisticated, but it’s enough. I’m going back to work tonight and I am going to keep trying. That’s all I wanted to say.” She smiled shyly at the applause from the people in the room and got up to make a cup of tea.

In the other room, Spencer was an absolute mess. His leg was bouncing, his hair kept falling over his face and people were staring at him to start. “Hi. Um… My name’s, uh, Spencer, And I’m a… I don’t really know what I am.” He paused, his hands getting sweatier in his pockets. “Um…i guess I, uh– I know I had a… A problem with Dilaudid, but, um… I stopped. Like…10 months ago I stopped. I thought it was over, But recently I’m– I’ve really been… Your literature uses the term “craving.” It started like a month ago. I…A–A suspect was murdered in front of me. A–A kid, And I thought that I could save the kid, But I couldn’t, and…” His cell buzzed in his pocket. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I’ve seen a lot of that stuff before, But for some reason, that kid’s face is really, uh… Stuck in my brain. You know? It’s really, uh–I can’t… And I… I want to forget… About him, and… I just want to escape.” His phone buzzed again. _Hotch._ “Sorry, I have to go. Sorry.” Spencer walked out of the room, pulling the phone to his ear. Before he said a word, he heard that voice again. One he hadn't heard in weeks. The one that calmed all his nerves.

“Yeah, Rossi. I know you’re worried, but my therapist cleared me and the paperwork’s all in order…I know Dad, but I’ll be fine. I’m taking all the right steps. Trust me…No, it doesn’t hurt anymore…Don’t worry, my bike’s right here…Sure, 5 minutes.” He saw her outline turn towards the bike and he was about to call out to her-

_“Reid? Reid, you there?”_

“Huh? Oh, yeah Hotch, I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

Piper ran through security, flashing her badge. As did Spencer a few minutes later. Skidding towards her desk, she dropped her leather bag on her chair, shrugged off her jacket and sped up the stairs. Spencer followed hastily. “Sorry, I’m late.” They said, perfectly synchronised. Derek snickered. 

“Where were you two?”

Again simultaneously they answered, though this time they were different as Spencer claimed “Movies” while Piper claimed “Asleep.” Panting, Piper hugged Emily and sat in her seat between Spencer and Emily. As she tied up her hair, JJ quickly recapped.

“We’ve got two dead cops. The resident, Rod Norris, was DOA. They’re still trying to ID the remains of the second victim, whom they believe is his 16-year-old daughter Jordan. From the condition of the remains, she would have had to have been inside the house close to the source of the blast.”

“Clearly, they used the bombing to set the officers up for an ambush,” Hotch added. 

“It’s also a sound strategy. The first wave draws in the officers before…” Piper trailed off.

“It’s a well-established terrorist tactic. The first wave takes out civilians, the second wave takes out first responders,” Spencer interrupted. Piper gave him a puzzled look which he ignored.

“The locals are thinking of terrorism. In West Bune, Texas?” Derek raised an eyebrow.

“Not exactly a tier-one target, but DHS did issue a terror alert for the border states yesterday, just due to the timing and nature of the attack-” 

“I’ve never heard of this place. I mean, the militia, ok, that I could see.” 

“Yeah, well, it is close to the border,” Emily noted. “It could be traffickers sending a message.” 

“Whoever it is, they gunned down two cops and blew up a teenage girl. Till they’re stopped, no one in that town is safe,” Rossi said despondently.

“We need to be cautious with the locals. They’ve lost two of their own, They’re anxious, they’re scared, And they’re gonna want revenge.” 

“Can you blame ‘em?”

* * *

4 black SUVs rolled up to the debris of a blown-up house. As JJ introduced the group to the sheriff, Piper took in the damage to the front of the house. “First victim, Rod Norris. Manager of the chemical plant over at ibis. No arrests in 10 years since his wife left him. I can’t blame her for leaving him, But it’s a shame she left Jordan behind.”

“What was Jordan like?” Piper asked gently.

“Sweet girl, a bit slow.” 

“Slow? She was mentally challenged?” 

“Not quite. Special ed and all that stuff. Takes some talking to her to notice it. I think her mother leaving took its toll.” Piper nodded briefly.

They separated as Hotch, Morgan and Piper took the front of the house and Prentiss, Reid and Rossi took the inside. 

“Hit pattern says they were fired on full auto,” Morgan started. 

“Tight grouping for it,” Hotch said, nodding. 

“Single burst put them both down. That takes skill and some serious training.”

“Letts lands here, still alive," Piper said, recalling her file. "Savage falls there dead.”

“But I walk past Letts. And I shoot Lou Savage in the face when I know he’s already dead. This was personal.” Derek turned his head to Bishop and raised an eyebrow as he watched her move backwards from the blood spatter.

“How far do you have to be to shoot both guys and not be affected by the blast?” At about 25 feet he told her to stop. From there, she pulled the elastic out of her hair, shaking the latter, before launching the elastic band rocketing between Morgan and Hotch, hitting Reid in the head. “Sorry!” She yelled. Reid just grimaced, rubbing the back of his head as Morgan and Hotch smiled. Spencer waited for Piper to mark the spot and run up to them before continuing. 

“They knew each other enough to know Rod Norris would enter through the back door while smoking and that Lou Savage was on duty and would respond.”

“So this isn’t terrorism. This is personal,” Piper remarked. “Rod Norris and Lou Savage were the specific targets of this attack. Sheriff, can you think of anyone with a close personal connection to Rod Norris and Lou Savage?”

“Yeah, I didn’t even think of it. Owen. Owen Savage. Lou’s son was dating Jordan Norris.”

The five of them left to examine the Savage Residence, a large house flying the American flag. “How long did you know Lou Savage?” Hotch questioned as the other agents divided into the house.

“My whole life.” 

“And Deputy Savage’s wife?” 

“Hope?” 

“How did she die?” 

“Drunk driver in '02. Lou was in Afghanistan. Owen lived with us until he got back.” 

“Semper fi,” Reid muttered. 

“How long was Lou Savage in the marines?” Derek asked, examining the framed photo of Deputy Savage.

“12 years. He was discharged so he could raise Owen.” 

“Is that why he resented them?” Reid turned to face the Sheriff and Piper turned from the trophy shelf, a little shocked at his bluntness.

“Pardon me?” 

“Uh, did Lou blame his wife and son for ending his career in the marines?” 

“Lou was a good man.” 

“A good man that doesn’t have a single photo of his dead wife or only son anywhere in his entire house,” Reid said lifelessly. 

“I know this is hard," Piper interrupted diplomatically, "and if we had more time we would be more sensitive, but we don’t.” 

“Hope was the drunk driver. I didn’t write it up that way, But it didn’t matter. Her drinking was no secret in town.” 

“Where’s Owen’s room?” Piper asked. 

“Right over there.” He pointed to an inner room. She muttered her thanks and walked out, lightly pulling Reid with her.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“A good man that doesn’t have a photo of his wife or son anywhere?”

“It was the truth Piper, this case is time-sensitive. What’s the real problem?”

“The problem is that you’re projecting your issues onto this case. Don’t do it. You have to separate your emotions or you will fall apart.” She hissed at him before rummaging through the desk. “Looks normal enough. Johnny Cash poster. James Dean’s Porsche, no James Dean, that’s not a good sign.” She connected a flash drive to the computer, quickly texting Garcia, before moving on. “Laptop’s password encrypted, Garcia should have it in no time. Smart if your dad’s a cop.”

“Assuming he cares enough to snoop through it.”

“You don’t know that, Reid.” She snapped. “Don’t do this to yourself.” She was pleading with him, he saw it in her eyes.

“You can’t talk about falling apart when you abandoned me.”

“I took a two-week leave of absence that I was entitled to. And I came back. And you have no right,” Piper spat. “Not when you didn’t call once.”

“Oh, yeah, well, what if I was falling apart and my best friend wasn’t there?”

“You have a spare key to my apartment, you have my number. I have always, always been there for you but I can’t check up on you all the time. The last time one of us did, you nearly bit her head off.” Piper’s face unwrinkled as the realisation of what she said dawned on her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” Morgan walked in and Reid turned around to examine the closet. 

“Gun safe is empty. What do you guys have?”

“Password to his laptop’s encrypted, he wears all-black, likes Johnny Cash and a picture of James Dean’s Porsche. You’ll have to explain the pop-culture on the wall, all I can tell you otherwise is he’s lonely,” Piper spoke rapidly. “He wears black to create a barrier between himself and the outside world, provide comfort while protecting its emotions and feelings, and hide his vulnerabilities, insecurities and lack of self-confidence. Jordan probably made him feel…less vulnerable and less alone.”

“Yeah, he also blacked his mirror, a sign of severely low self-esteem, no help from his dad I presume.”

“I’m gonna get some air. Have fun!” She made that polite cat face again, patting Morgan’s shoulder as she left.

“Kay, kid. What’d you say to her?”

“Nothing. Just back off man. I’ll figure it out.” They heard a commotion outside and rushed to the porch to see a woman in her late 30s struggling to get past an officer.

“What’s happening?” Derek murmured to Piper.

“Officer Letts’s wife. She’s blaming Owen.” They watched the scuffle on the Savages’ front lawn. 

“Did Lou’s freak son shoot Byron?” She yelled.

“Go home to your kids, Sarah. The kids need you at home,” the sheriff rationally explained. 

“My children need their daddy. Send them home, you don’t need them. You know what to do. You find that little son of a bitch. You find him and do what’s right.” The officer herded her away from the house as Derek turned to the four of them.

“Why do I get the feeling she’s not going to be the only one with that sentiment?” Piper scoffed.

“Stay here and work the room,” Hotch ordered Derek. “Reid, Bishop and I are going to go to the high school and talk to Owen’s teachers and friends. We need to get a profile and figure out where he’s going.”

* * *

Piper flicked through Owen Savage’s school reports, as the guidance counsellor sat next to her. “That’s odd.” 

“What?” Hotch looked up from Reid’s copy of Jordan’s reports who’d been deemed alive by Rossi (apparently the ‘body’ in the house was just ham shoved into a pair of her jeans).

“Owen has A’s in maths and science, suggests a keen intellect in terms of umm… rational patterns which is really the essence of high school maths and science. But he has poor grades in English and History, suggesting he either a) doesn’t grasp human and social behaviours very well or b) has some kind of reading disability, maybe dyslexia or some other difficulty,” Piper looked up at them. “But then his F in geometry indicates a severe problem with spatial relations. I don’t mean to be rude, but putting him in special ed for something as simple as bad attitude is madness. Owen is an intelligent but severely learning disabled student.”

“His standardised tests were fine, they didn’t support that kind of intelligence.”

“Not being able to understand spatial relations is a perception based problem-”

“He couldn’t fill in an answer bubble any easier than he could hit a baseball,” he interrupted, frustratedly.

“…which would be why he stayed away from sports.” Piper continued.

“Sport was a sore spot with his father. I mean, he joined the wrestling team freshman year just to appease his old man, but, uh… it didn’t work out.” The counsellor’s cell buzzed and he excused himself. Piper watched him leave and then Hotch, leaving the two alone again. As Spencer paced, Piper went through Owen’s test responses.

“Piper, he was probably the smartest kid in class. He just couldn’t prove it. Being the smartest kid in class Is like being the only kid in class. He missed all of it.” She was silent as he paced. He was projecting again. She knew the kind of stuff he’d been through in high school. After all, he’d graduated at 12. But she was getting angry. “He gives it everything he’s got, Over and over and over again, and continues to fail. And the whole time, the whole time they tell him it’s his fault. I mean, it makes sense.”

“No, it doesn’t.” She slapped the report of the desk. “There’s something that happened to him at this school, something else. An undiagnosed learning disability does not add up to this level of violence, not without severe emotional abuse. You know that. There’s another stressor, and I’m willing to bet that it’s in that wrestling team. Now, I’m going to talk to the coach. Keep your passive aggression to this room.”

“I’m not being-”

“Reid, I taught high-school students for a year. I know what passive aggression looks like.” She stormed out. 

* * *

“So he was being bullied?” Piper and the coach (who looked exactly like you’d picture him) stood in the school locker room. The man was about 5′8″, wearing red shorts, a white tank and a whistle around his neck. He was slightly balding and his belly slightly protruded from under his shirt.

“Yeah, seniors thought he was easy pickings. Did he set that bomb?”

“I’m not at liberty to say yet, I’m just a little concerned is all. He’s been missing for a few days and both his parents are…” She trailed off. “How was he bullied?” Her gaze returned to her notebook.

“A few boys thought it would be a good idea to have him stripped and masturbate to a camera.” Piper looked at him, eyebrows furrowed.

“And were the boys reprimanded?”

“We didn’t have proof. Owen identified them, but you couldn’t see their faces on the video.”

“Jesus, there was a video?” Her arms went limp and she licked her lips. “Let me guess, it was released on the internet too?”

“Yeah, school’s social network. Father found out too, blamed Owen for the whole thing.”

“I’d like a list of their names.”

She walked back into the counsellor's office while on the phone with Penelope. "No, send it to my email, I can use the counsellor's desktop. Okay, thanks." She slipped the cell into her pocket before logging into her email account, turning the screen to show her boss and Spencer the video. "That's the stressor point. Wrestling team made him strip and masturbate. The boys weren’t reprimanded. Their coach said the boys were identified by Owen but couldn’t be seen on tape so they were left alone. Father found out, blamed Owen. Had to have hit a nerve, considering he only joined for his dear ole’ dad’s approval.” She glanced back as the counsellor walked back in, paling when he saw the video.

“We pulled that down the minute it went up, I swear.”

“That doesn’t explain how the culprits weren’t punished for it,” Piper retorted.

“Look, it was Owen’s word against theirs. They’d have banded together, parents will get involved, the school board, lawyers. I mean, cyber-bullying is a hot issue right now.”

“For good reason. Bullies aren’t limited to the home anymore, their taunts and teasing used to be limited to how fast you can run home after school. Clearly not the case anymore,” Piper argued calmly, pointing to the screen in front of them.

“It wouldn’t have helped Owen.”

“What did you tell him?” 

“I told him that dealing with bullies is a part of growing up.” Spencer balled his fists up, about to retort when she piped up.

“Social exclusion and ostracisation isn’t a norm and as the protector of these students, you had a responsibility to protect them. From things like this. Public humiliation and social suicide isn’t a part of growing up.” She gritted her teeth as she spoke calmly. “If you think a child should have to go through the societal ritual of self-hatred, public degradation and survival as a part of ‘growing up’, then I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t be anywhere near a child.”

“Bishop! Take a walk.” Hotch ordered.

“No problem.” She bowed out gracefully.

“Boys have a way of sorting these things out for themselves.” 

“Yeah, they sure do. Right now, Owen’s out there sorting it out with an assault rifle.” 

“Reid.” He walked out too, dropping the files at the counsellor’s feet. He joined Piper in the parking lot as he stood, leaning on her bike.

“Hey.” She said softly. “Guess I’m a hypocrite.” She gazed at the sports field. “High school isn’t ever easy for anyone.” He scoffed. “I’m sorry. I…uh… I shouldn’t have said that stuff to you. Shouldn’t have assumed you-”

“I did. I mean, I had a craving. It’s why I went to group therapy yesterday.”

“Wait, you too? Never mind, Spence, I’m sorry. I should have-”

“No, you were right. Earlier, I mean. You know my history, high schools and father figures and-”

“Shut up, Reid.” She smiled. “You know, I forgive you, right? Always. No matter what. I left because I was lying to the team and Rossi knew. My shoulder still hurt, I hadn’t slept in a week with all the-”

“Nightmares?” He asked softly.

“Yeah.” She gulped. “I just wanted to forget everything. I would’ve bought alcohol, but it is ridiculously expensive in DC.” She laughed derisively. “But, I should’ve called.” Right then, as Piper tilted her head back to the field, tucking a lock behind her hair, Spencer noticed how beautiful she was in that moment. _And in her smile, I see something more beautiful than the stars._ “So, what did I miss anyway that made you so mad this morning?”

“I saw a kid, the unsub, he was shot by the man whose daughter he kidnapped.” Before he knew it, her arms were around his neck as she whispered to him.

“Jeez, Spence. I’m so sorry. I should never have left.” He smelled lavender in her hair and reminded him of hot cocoa on a cold night, but both those feelings were fleeting as she let go of him. “I shouldn’t have left you,” she whispered. “I should’ve called. I should’ve…Hotch?”

“You should’ve Hotch?”

“No, you dork, Hotch,” she chided, pointing at the school entrance. “He’s never yelled at me. Is he gonna yell at me?”

“No, I think he’s more irritated by the counsellor, for which, by the way, you are my hero.”

“Huh?”

“That talking-to you gave him? About growing up? Brilliant. You’re my hero.” Piper smiled and bowed.

“Your white knight ever-present.” She turned and yelped. “Jeez, Hotch. A little warning next time. Make a sound or something.”

“Emily and JJ talked to Jordan’s friend. Emphasised how Jordan wouldn’t do something like this. Kyle Borden, our latest victim by the interstate, took advantage of Jordan when she was a freshman.”

“He’s taking revenge.”

“We need to get back to the precinct. Piper, you’ll get there the fastest. Tell Morgan to come in and ask Garcia to get us access to Owen’s emails.”

“Got it, boss.”

^-^

Piper was pacing on the phone with Garcia while Morgan and Rossi sat watching her go back and forth.

“We need access to Owen’s e-mail, Garcia, ASAP.” 

_“The kid is tech-savvy, Pipes, but fret not, I am tech savvier. Is that a word? That sounds like a word. If it is a word, I’m it.”_

“D.C. time, Garcia.” 

_“11:17 am.”_

“D.C. Decaf.” 

_“Right.”_

“And, Garcia?”

_“Yes, my beloved.”_

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

_“Awwww. You’re too sweet. Also, I don’t know where that’s from.”_

“Shakespeare, my sweet dove. Bye.”

“New girlfriend?” Rossi asked, looking up from the laptop.

“Sort of, I stole Morgan’s.”

“What,” Derek whined. “How?”

“I did the one thing you can’t do.”

“What? What magic did you sprinkle on my baby girl that she loves you more than me?”

“Shakespeare, my sweet. She’s working on getting us access and Hotch and Reid are on their way. Hotch reckons once we go through his files, we’ll be good to go with the profile. Ah, speaking of him, Hotch!” She yelled. “Come take a look at this.” Derek plugged a drive into the computer and a video flashed onscreen. Hotch saw with numb eyes as Owen Savage shot the three boys stripped to their underwear. “They’re…They’re the boys that bullied Owen.” Piper’s voice cracked as her hand found Spencer’s.

“That song Owen was playing when he did this, how did it go?” Morgan asked Reid.

Flustered. That’s how Spencer felt with Piper’s hand interlocked in his. He cleared his throat as he felt Piper let go and recited, “There’s a man going round taking names, and he decides who to free and who to blame. Everybody won’t be treated all the same."

“Johnny Cash,” Rossi identified, rubbing his face with his hand. “He’s acting out his revenge fantasies. The family, school, and social dynamics do seem to fit perfectly.” 

“He’s not collecting names. He’s collecting injustices. We need to give that profile,” Reid’s voice subtly shook.

As they gathered in front of the officers in the station, some grumbled about the use of a profile. “Once you’ve heard the profile, you’ll understand,” JJ tried to explain, exasperated. 

“We’re wastin’ time,” the senior officer complained. “Owen’s here, and we should be knocking on doors.” 

“It’s not a good idea,” Hotch advised. 

“And why is that?” 

“Because Owen’s watching. He’s monitoring the news. Right now, he thinks you think he’s gone. He feels safe. If we start knocking on doors, he’s gonna know that he’s not. He’s gonna feel trapped.” 

“Why the hell should we care about this little bastard’s feelings?” 

“All right," JJ interrupted. "We’re here to help you bring in Owen Savage with minimum loss of life. The profile tells you the best way to do that.” 

“Owen Savage fits the profile of a type of school shooter known as an injustice collector. He’s trying to avenge perceived wrongs,” Piper continued. 

“If he’s a school shooter, why hasn’t he hit the school yet?” 

“Jordan. Most of these guys are so angry and hopeless, they just want to kill as many people as possible and commit suicide. But Jordan gives him a reason to live. Otherwise, he’s a textbook case,” Emily answered. 

“His life was one torment after another. His teachers gave up on him, his classmates bullied him, and his father blamed him while giving him access to guns. Given these conditions, you’re actually quite fortunate.” Spencer proposed cynically.

“It sounds like you’re saying these victims deserved this.” 

“We’re not. Nobody deserves this,” Hotch said evenly. 

“But you could have prevented it,” Spencer continued. 

“Reid, can I talk to you?” The group watched as Spencer stalked off behind Hotch. Grimly, they delivered the rest of the profile. When he walked out, she saw him storm out of the precinct. “Bishop, go with him. We need more on the kid.” Nodding, she joined Reid outside, surprised to see him seated on her loaned bike. 

“You’re sure you want the bike?” 

“Yes. Can we go, please?”

“Well, seeing as you asked so nicely.” Piper fitted the helmet carefully on her head. Piper smiled as Spencer wrapped his arms around her instinctively. “We’re here. You can open your eyes now.” Unlocking her helmet, she hung it carefully on the bike handle.

“I see why you prefer the bike. It’s liberating-”

“Don’t profile me, Dr Reid. Let’s get this case over with so we can go home.” She marched into the house and plopped onto Owen’s bed. She shushed any form of protest from Reid, pointing for him to get started on the emails.

“What are you doing?”

“Vibing.” Spencer was about to retort but his brain was so confused by her, he couldn’t formulate a response. So he sat at the computer and began reading.

“Do you think-”

“All the time. I’m a good thinker, you know.”

“That’s not what I meant. Do you think-”

“Yep.”

“Will you quit that? I’m trying to ask you something.”

“Ask away.” She giggled, her hair splayed out on the bed as she stared at the ceiling.

“Thank you-”

“You’re welcome.”

“I hate you.”

“No, you don’t. I think you’re right. About everything. Owen’s life was a tragedy. Some kids just have no chance.”

“You were a teacher. Did this kind of-”

“Never. Mind you, I only taught for about a year. But none of them ever- well, apart from…him. I felt guilty for weeks. I was his teacher, I was the one constant authority figure and I never even realised.” She sighed heavily and collapsed sidelong on the bed. “I was never bullied.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but for a different reason. I figured out the only reason they messed with other kids was that they didn’t get good marks. Found out that the most popular kid in school was failing history so he couldn’t play football. So, for a price, I tutored him. Free sessions until his marks pick up and if they do, he’d stop bullying. As soon as he stopped the bullying, the other kids followed. The only problem was we graduated. My little ones, Lucy and Danny, they weren’t so lucky.”

“What happened?”

“My brother’s smart. Star in debating.”

“The lawyer, right?”

“Yeah. He got picked on all the time because he had to wear glasses. Our father refused to buy contacts. And there was nothing I could do for him. Eventually, one of the kids punched him in the school parking lot as I drove in to pick him up. So I got out. Punched the kid square in the nose, couldn’t have been more than 15.”

“And?”

“Danny didn’t speak to me until I came back in the fall from Harvard. Kids had become relentless. And it was all my fault.” She shrugged. “There aren’t any strategies, Spence. No policies. The only way out is expelling the kids, that doesn’t solve the problem either, just pushes it onto someone else. There’s no way out.” She exhaled heavily.

“I was in the library, And, uh… Harper Hillman comes up to me, and she tells me that Alexa Lisbon wants to meet me behind the field house. Alexa Lisbon's, like… easily the prettiest girl in school.”

“Spence, you don’t have to-”

“No, I shouldn’t keep trying to forget it happened, because it did.” Spencer felt no fear in telling her what happened, feared no judgement in her voice. Because he trusted her. Enough to be vulnerable with her. “She was there. So was the entire football team. They…uh… stripped me naked and tied me to a goal post. So many kids were there, you know, just watching.”

“And no-one did a thing?” Her voice shook with the rage of a thousand hell-beasts at the audacity of a human to do something of this proportion to the gorgeous, brilliant doctor sitting in front of her.

“I begged– I begged them to, But they just– They just watched. And finally, they got bored, and they left. It was, like, midnight when I finally got home. And my mom didn’t… Mom was having one of her episodes, So she didn’t even realise I was late.”

“You never told her what happened?” 

“I never told anybody. I thought… It was one of those things that I thought If I didn’t talk about it, I’d just forget. But I remember it like it was yesterday.” He closed his eyes and felt the comfort of hot cocoa and lavender again.

“Spencer.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m never leaving you again.”

“That’s it!” Piper got up as he exclaimed. She blinked a dozen times at Spencer before he explained. “Abandonment is his biggest fear. That’s why he chose Jordan. He thinks she’ll never leave.”

“So if we get her to leave him, he has nothing to live for. But the only person she trusts is Owen.”

“Emily can help us with that. Let’s go.”

Piper drove them back to the precinct and Rossi herded her to the couch to get some sleep, despite her valiant protests. As she closed her eyes, Hotch discussed the plan. Emily and JJ would get Eileen to make contact with Jordan’s PDA. Hopefully, she’d give them the location. When that didn’t work, they asked her to come to them.

Eventually, crying in the morning, Jordan entered the precinct. Piper had wrapped her in a warm, grey blanket, slowly guiding her to the interview room. Morgan, Reid and Rossi left for Stratman’s ranch as soon as the location slipped from her tongue. They’d found Stratman’s body, left with a note saying _"I’m going to return my mom’s necklace.”_

Reid had come back alone, defeated as he lay his forehead in the crook of her neck. As he recounted everything to her over a cup of coffee, something clicked in Piper’s brain. _Hold on a minute,_ she’d said as she rushed into the interview room. The question that slipped over her tongue shattered her. _Did he give you the necklace?_ _No._ Before anyone could say anything, Spencer had already gone outside. _No,_ she’d whispered. _Don’t shoot,_ she’d yelled. They watched as Spencer empathised with Owen, and they watched the doctor wearing the cardigan slowly guide the student to the precinct, rifle dropped to the floor. He watched the student trudge away with the officer after giving Jordan his mother’s necklace and smelled that scent of hot cocoa and lavender.

On the jet, he sat, gazing out the window as Piper snored softly next to him, until she gripped his wrist under the table whispering, _Not him, please. Me, not him._ He rubbed circles on the back of her hand until she calmed in her sleep, tranquil in the ocean of dreams.


End file.
